How to send SMS from SugarCRM

If you are running a business, managing your contact list
can be challenging sometimes. It can be hard to keep track of
customer data, such as personal or purchase information. Of course you would like to
follow your employees' activities, which means more paperwork,
more untraceable files on your computer. On this webpage, you can get more
information on how to simplify your business life with an easy solution that
would make you forget all about those difficulties with managing your contact
list...

What is SugarCRM?
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It enables you to organize and
manage your customer data. SugarCRM is a free CRM software that makes your daily
contact management easier.

You should know that although using a CRM system makes your work
easier, you can even make it more effective by implementing an SMS module in it.
With a simple CRM system you can only send emails to your target audience, but with
an SMS module, you will be able to send text messages, too.

The best way to implement SMS technology in your daily business life is to use an
SMS gateway software, like Ozeki NG SMS Gateway.
With Ozeki NG SMS Gateway, you will get a powerful, stable and reliable system.

Components for this solution

To implement this solution, you need to connect your system to the
mobile network. For this purpose you can use Internet
connection or a GSM phone/GSM modem attached to your computer (this way you will
have a wireless connection).
The following webpage gives you all the information to decide which solution suits
your requirements best: Internet
based SMS connections vs. GSM modem based (wireless) SMS connections.

Internet based connection:

For connecting your system over the Internet to an SMS service provider, you need
the follows:

Figure 1/a - Components for Internet based connection

First of all, you need a service provider, who can reach the mobile phones in your
area and enables you to connect to their SMSC through the Internet. The following
website lists some of them: SMPP SMS Service providers. After you have chosen a service
provider, you need to sign up for their service. This will you will get connection
parameters that can be used to configure your Ozeki NG SMS Gateway software.

GSM modem connection:

For a wireless connection, you need a suitable GSM phone/GSM modem that can be attached
to your computer with a data cable. This way, Ozeki NG SMS Gateway software will send and
receive the SMS messages wirelessly, using the GSM modem. To create this connection, you
need the following prerequisites:

Figure 1/b - Components for GSM modem connection

Please make sure you have the following items to create a GSM modem connection:

How SMS messaging with SugarCRM works

If you follow the configuration steps below, your system will
work as follows:
After you logged in to SugarCRM with your username and password, you need to install
and configure Ozeki SMS module. After this, you will be able to
write messages, send the messages to any phone number or you can pick the
recipients from your contact list. SugarCRM will send your SMSs to Ozeki NG
SMS Gateway, which will send out your messages to the recipients (Figure 2).

Figure 2 - System architecture

Configure SMS functionality to SugarCRM - Technical background

To implement SMS functionality to SugarCRM effectively, please
follow the steps of this configuration guide.

It is assumed that you have already downloaded the Ozeki SMS module to your desktop (Figure 3).

Figure 3 - Ozeki SMS module installed on the computer

For configuration you need to start your browser, go to SugarCRM's webpage
and log in as Admin (Figure 4).

Figure 4 - SugarCRM login window

Click on "admin" on the upper right corner of the program (Figure 5).

Figure 5 - Click on "admin"

Now you are in the Administrator menu. In the "Developer tools" section,
click on "Module Loader" to add
modules to SugarCRM (Figure 6).